Croydon Communists’ Rallying Cry for the Local Elections: Let’s Fight for a People’s Britain Not a Bankers’ Britain!

Croydon Communists stepped up their campaign in the May 2014 local elections. Members were out yesterday leafleting in the three wards where we are standing candidates in the May 2014 local elections: Bensham Manor, Selhurst and Broad Green.

Ben Stevenson, Croydon Communist candidate for Bensham Manor, said, “This is the real start of our campaign. We will be using all available media channels as well as traditional campaigning methods to get out message across to local residents that we offer a genuine alternative to the relentless austerity, public service cuts and total lack of accountability offered by the Tories. They also need more than the vague platitudes presented by Labour about more transparency and cleaning up dog mess! We all deserve better than this government or the lacklustre ‘Tory-lite’ response being offered by the Milliband-Balls ‘purple’ Labour plan of exactly the same policies dragged out over a couple of years.”

Croydon Communists see the election as a real opportunity to take the fight to the Con-Dem Government and explain to local people that there is a future worth fighting for based on a genuine socialist political and economic strategy. The Government continues to try to con people into thinking that they offer the only way out of the economic crisis. But ordinary people know when they are being sold a pup. Real wages remain significantly lower than they were before the recession hit; pensioners and benefit claimants have seen a significant reduction in disposable income; and the NHS, education, social housing and other public services are under a sustained assault by a government determined to turn the clock back to the social conditions of the 19th Century. It’s time we put people before profit – and fought for a people’s Britain rather than a bankers’ Britain.

Dr Peter Latham, Croydon Communist candidate for Broad Green, said, “Labour’s talk of ‘difficult choices’ and providing public services ‘differently’ utterly misses the point. The experience in Lambeth and other councils are well known – residents are faced with an impossible choice. Either support the provision of vital local services staffed by volunteers, with all the impact that has on the quality of service delivery and the jobs of the staff themselves, or see them disappear. This is no choice at all!”

Croydon’s communists support more democracy at street and community level, with real involvement by residents in local projects. Communist policies for Croydon are based on a realistic and objective assessment of what’s deliverable at local level in current political circumstances and include:

• More affordable public sector housing and a cap on private housing at affordable rents
• Compulsory take-over of empty office space
• Defend the freedom pass and fight for more investment inpublic transport
• Council-led drive for investment in clean technology and an increase in recycling
• Higher council tax rates for top-band properties
• A council-led drive for jobs and facilities for disabled workers
• No more outsourcing or privatisation of council services
• A tight cap on councillors’ allowances and expenses.

John Eden, Croydon Communist candidate for Selhurst, said, “I’m standing up for ordinary people in the ward. Croydon Labour Party’s manifesto for the May 2014 elections provides a clear illustration of their failure to offer a vision for Croydon which presents a genuine alternative. Our community faces job losses, inadequate housing and all-out assault on local services. I look forward to the challenge presented by this election, taking the fight to the Tories and explaining to local people that there’s a future worth fighting for based on a socialist vision that empowers them and offers hope of a better future.”

Notes to editors:
1. For enquiries phone 0208 686 1659 or e-mail croydon@communist-party.org.uk
2. Ben Stevenson is 29 years old and National Secretary of the Communist Party. Since moving to Croydon from his native Birmingham in 2005, he has been heavily involved in local labour movement politics through the Croydon Save Our Schools Campaign, the campaign against the Beddington Lane Incinerator and the Croydon Trades Union Council’s Executive Committee. He stood as a Communist Party candidate in the 2012 Croydon North by-election.
3. John Eden is the Communist Party candidate for Selhurst. He is 64 years old and a carpenter and joiner. He is a member of Croydon Trades Union Council’s Executive Committee and has lived in Selhurst for 27 years.
4. Dr Peter Latham is the Communist Party candidate for Broad Green. A former lecturer, he has lived in the area for many years. He is the author of ‘The State and Local Government: Towards a new basis for local democracy and the defeat of big business control’ and a longstanding member of Croydon Trades Union Council’s Executive Committee.
5. Croydon Communists recently published a well-received pamphlet on housing issues in the borough, ‘Decent Homes for All – End Croydon’s Housing Crisis Now’, which is available on the website or by contacting us direct.
6. The Communist Party was founded in 1920 and is part of an international movement involving millions of people in more than 100 countries across the globe.